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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28387563">Seen in Evidence</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430'>kitkatt0430</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Olivarry Bingo 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Barry Allen Works For The SCPD, Barry figures out Oliver's the vigilante, Barry grew up in Starling City instead of Central, Barry knows bullet holes when he sees them, M/M, Oliver didn't intend to catch feelings for the cute CSI though, Oliver goes to Barry for some forensic help, but Oliver intended for him to figure that out, totally above board nothing to see here...</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:33:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,817</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28387563</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry used to tutor Oliver back in high school.  But that was years ago, long before the island.  Barry certainly never expected the other man to remember him after all these years.</p><p>(Or the one where Barry's a CSI for the SCPD and Oliver didn't intend to catch feelings at all, never mind this fast.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Barry Allen/Oliver Queen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Olivarry Bingo 2020 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>228</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Moonlight and Cats</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Seen in Evidence</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For my B1 Olivarry Bingo prompt - Barry works at the SCPD</p><p>Also, this gives me a diagonal bingo!!!! yay!!!</p><p>I'm having Barry largely take Felicity's place here, since her niche as Oliver's first outside helper is the one I want to slot Barry into.  And I couldn't remember when the field trip to Iron Heights took place, so I stuck it in their Junior year of high school.  Seemed like a good place for it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Barry doesn't take too much note of the news when Oliver Queen is found alive.  He's happy for their family, of course.  But he hasn't seen Oliver Queen since high school, when Barry was briefly the other boy's after school science tutor.  Barry had skipped a few grades to land in the same year as Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn.  And he'd liked the two well enough - they were popular, but not bullies - but Oliver was not an attentive student and Tommy had been able to coast by as an A/B student with very little studying.  So once Barry helped Oliver boost his science grade up to a more acceptable C, he didn't really have anything to do with the Queen heir at all.</p><p>So when Oliver showed up at the station about a week later, Barry has to do a double take at the sight.  Remind himself that, oh yeah, Oliver Queen's alive after all.</p><p>He's alive... and Detective Lance's missing daughter Sara isn't.</p><p>Barry winces at the sight of Quentin Lance's belligerent attitude, hoping he won't wind up at any of the same crime scenes as that particular detective today, and skirts his way around the bullpen to find Detective Bryers to deliver an analysis report.  He overhears Queen talking about having been rescued by a vigilante in a green hood, though, and isn't that interesting?  He treads a little closer on his way out of the bullpen after leaving the report on Bryers' desk, but by then Queen and Merlyn are headed out.</p><p>Being a klutz every day ending in 'y', however, means that this isn't the end of things.  Barry trips over his own feet on the way out of the bullpen and nearly falls face first to the floor.  Almost, because a strong pair of hands catches and steadies him at the last second.</p><p>Oliver Queen's hands.</p><p>Barry blushes and stammers out a thank you.</p><p>"No problem.  I know you from somewhere, don't I?" Oliver asked, sounding curious.</p><p>"I went to high school with you both," Barry said, acknowledging Tommy too.  "Barry Allen, I... uh, I actually tutored you for a few weeks senior year."</p><p>"Oh, I remember now."  Oliver grinned and Barry blushed harder.  "You're the only reason I passed Physics."  He slid his hands down and then back up Barry's upper arms before letting him go.  "You were planning on going into... forensic science, right?  I guess that means you're a CSI now."</p><p>Barry nodded, surprised Oliver remembered him at all, much less his obsession with forensic science.  "Assistant CSI," he clarified.  "It's, um... it's good to see you two again, though I suppose the circumstances could be better.  You're both okay, right?"</p><p>Tommy nodded, watching Barry with clear amusement.  "We're good, thanks to that vigilante in green.  I'm sure you're busy right now, but we should definitely catch up some later.  Don't you agree, Ollie?"  </p><p>"That's a great idea.  Here..." Oliver pulled out his phone and unlocked it to his contacts before handing it over.  "Add yourself and I can text you later?  Set up a time to hang out?"</p><p>Barry's mouth goes dry because... Oliver Queen wants his phone number.  Barry's too bi for this situation, this is ridiculous.  But he adds his name and phone number anyway and even texts himself a smiley face so that he can go ahead and add Oliver to his own contacts.</p><p>"See you soon, Barry," Oliver promises as he takes his phone back and Barry says something in response that he can't remember.  He just hopes it's not ridiculously awful.</p><p>He heads back to his lab - and eventually out to a crime scene - with the back of his mind distracted by how nice and warm and strong and calloused Oliver Queen's hands are.</p><p>In retrospect, those hands are the first clue.</p>
<hr/><p>Barry winds up invited to Oliver's welcome back party.  It's loud and when Barry runs into Oliver and Tommy, the former looks uncomfortable while the latter looks oblivious.  Oliver winds up disappearing for a while and Barry can't really blame him; he might've been used to this sort of scene before the island, but five years of solitude is a very long time.  The party is probably massively overwhelming.</p><p>Even Barry finds it a little overwhelming and he winds up ducking out early.  Only to run into Oliver again outside.</p><p>"Leaving already?" Oliver asks, sounding a little disappointed.</p><p>Barry shrugged.  "I enjoy clubbing, but this kind of party's never really been my scene.  Too much of a nerd, I guess."  Iris would have loved it, but she was out of state working on her psychology masters.  He'd have plenty of details when they next talked on the phone, though.</p><p>"I'm not sure it's my scene anymore either," Oliver admitted, looking more than a little rueful as he glanced inside.  "Tommy worked really hard putting this together for me and I don't know how to tell him that having so many people in one place is making me claustrophobic.  And I forgot how loud parties like this get.  It's like I can't breathe because the beat is so loud I can feel it in my chest."</p><p>Split second decisions were not, historically, Barry's best ideas.  But he was pretty sure this was a good one.  "How about we just sit out here and talk for a while?"</p><p>Oliver beamed.  His whole face just... lit up from his smile.  Barry felt his own chest go all warm and fuzzy at the sight.</p><p>Had he crushed this hard on Oliver in high school?  Barry honestly couldn't remember.</p><p>When the cops show up due to the attack in the building across the street, Oliver gets frustrated with Detective Lance and causes a bit of a scene over asking the party goers about any vigilantes in green hanging around.  Barry's pretty sure that he's been landed in Quentin Lance's shit list by association, but whatever.  Oliver's smile was worth it.</p>
<hr/><p>After the party, Oliver invites Barry to lunch a few times and it's nice spending time with him.  Feeds Barry's crush something awful, but Barry can live with that.  Not the first unrequited crush he's ever had and, with his luck, not likely to be the last.</p><p>But then one day Oliver shows up at Barry lab, coming in through the exterior entrance after texting Barry to badge him in.  And he brings with him a laptop riddled with bullet holes.</p><p>"Oliver, are you okay?"  Barry immediately starts looking him over for injuries.  Or trying to look him over for injuries anyway.</p><p>"I'm fine, Barry," Oliver assured him, setting down the laptop on a nearby lab table.  "The laptop isn't mine.  It's a... friend's.  Wrong place, wrong time, his laptop got destroyed."</p><p>"Destroyed," Barry parroted, rolling his eyes.  "Oliver, those are bullet holes.  This laptop is a witness to a crime.  Your friend should come forward and report what happened."</p><p>"He doesn't trust cops," Oliver said quietly and, well, Barry loves his job but he knows a lot of good reasons for people not to trust cops.  His own childhood experiences are Exhibit A.</p><p>"Okay, so no report is going to be filed on the laptop's death and I assume no one was murdered so this isn't linked to an ongoing investigation?" Barry asked.</p><p>Oliver nodded.  "I was hoping you could help retrieve the data on the laptop, or know someone who could?"</p><p>Barry shrugged, "I can do some basic computer forensics.  I should be able to dump the data onto an external drive.  Assuming nothing important got destroyed by the bullets."  Something nagged at the back of Barry's mind, though, and he was tempted to ask if this 'friend' of Oliver's happened to wear a green hoodie.  </p><p>But if Oliver was doing this for the Hood, it was probably because the guy did save Oliver and Tommy's lives not too long ago.  And the plausible deniability wouldn't hurt Barry any.</p><p>Though if there were still bullets in the laptop, Barry intends to see if he can get any matches on them... just in case.</p>
<hr/><p>The bullets don't get a hit on the system, but Barry can't resist looking at the data on the computer.  It's not 'a friend's' laptop, that's for sure.</p><p>It's a laptop from Patel Industries and it had a map with information on the Exchange Building where there'd soon be bidding on the Unidac Industries auction.  Barry's more certain than ever that Oliver got the laptop from the Hood.</p><p>So he has Oliver come back to the lab to discuss what he found.  "Look, I realize the Hood saved your life, Oliver, but if the vigilante gets arrested he could put you in a lot of legal trouble."</p><p>Now Oliver looked a touch guilty.  "And by asking for your help, it could get you in trouble too.  I'm sorry, Barry, I shouldn't have..."</p><p>Barry reached over and took Oliver's hand, causing the other man to trail off with a sort of startled expression.  "I'll be fine, Oliver.  I'm more worried about you right now.  I'm not saying don't help him.  You should do what you think is right.  But don't get yourself arrested doing it.  Your family just got you back and I'd hate for them to lose you to prison or worse.  I'd hate to lose you."  He blushed, wondering if he'd said too much, given too much away...</p><p>Oliver turned his hand over and threaded their fingers together.  "I'll be careful.  I promise." </p><p>When he leaves, Barry waits a while before calling in Detective Lance and reporting the laptop that was 'dropped off by the vigilante'.  The lab itself isn't under video surveillance and the camera on the exterior door has been broken for the last few days, so there's no one to say otherwise and nothing to get Oliver in trouble for his collusion with a known criminal.  And Oliver's prints aren't on the laptop, thankfully.  The Hood didn't get Oliver in trouble today... but Barry has no doubts that he will eventually.</p>
<hr/><p>The next time Barry sees Oliver, he's got a new bodyguard.  Barry'd liked Dig - he had a good sense of humor over getting ditched by Oliver and had done a fairly decent job of winning the 'test of wills' between himself and Oliver about half the time.  New guy is called Rob Scott and Barry honestly can't see the guy lasting long.  Too tightly strung, no sense of humor, and did not take well to being ditched multiple times a day.</p><p>"You shouldn't have run off Dig," Barry complained over the phone that evening.</p><p>"I know.  I kind of... screwed up and pushed to hard on something I shouldn't have."  Oliver sighed.  "I'm working on convincing him to come back.  Scott's an idiot.  I wouldn't trust him to protect a paper bag, never mind whatever threat my mom thinks is out there waiting for me."</p><p>"She's just afraid to lose you again after... after the island," Barry said, hesitating to go there.  But it kind of needed to be said.  "Her and your sister, both."</p><p>Oliver is quiet for a long time before he said, "I'm not the same Oliver they used to know and love.  And I don't think I'll ever be able to be him again.  But sometimes it feels like everyone is expecting me to be that Oliver again and I... I'm letting them down."</p><p>"I like this Oliver," Barry replied impulsively.  "I think they will too, if you give them the chance to get to know the person you've become.  It's okay to be different after something traumatic.  I..." he swallowed hard.  "I wasn't the same after my mom died.  I saw the person who killed her and no one ever believed me and that... I know it's totally different circumstances, but I... I do know what it's like to go through something awful and come out the other side different.  Everyone expected me to be the same Barry Allen and I wasn't.  How could I?  My mom was dead, my dad was under arrest for a murder he didn't commit, and I was put into foster care until Joe could legally become my guardian.  It's an awful way to find out who my friends really were.  But it also showed me who my family was.  The people who rallied around me and put in the effort to know who I was after all that.  So... give your family a chance to show you they can still love you no matter how different you are."</p><p>"Thanks, Barry," Oliver said, voice a little choked up sounding.  "You're a good friend.  I really don't... I really don't deserve you."</p><p>"Too late for that," Barry teased.  "You going to be okay?"</p><p>"Yeah.  I think... I think I'll see if Thea wants to hang out.  Talk with you later?"</p><p>"Sure thing."  Barry hung up with a smile on his face, hoping that maybe he'd helped Oliver out some.</p>
<hr/><p>"You arrested Oliver Queen on suspicion that he's the Hood," Barry repeated slowly, moving to massage the bridge of his nose.</p><p>Quentin Lance and Joe West both nodded.  "That's right," Lance said.</p><p>"Then you need to take me off this case and hand it to another CSI," Barry told them.  "Oliver is my friend," and there was Lance's furious look, "which makes this a massive conflict of interest."</p><p>Joe gave Barry his most disappointed look.  "Barry, how could you..."</p><p>"He's not the vigilante," Barry snapped, though... he wasn't so sure.  The calluses on Oliver's hands were... the pad of his hand where he'd hold the bow.   The fingers he'd use to draw a bow.  Even if he mostly used gloves now and the calluses were mostly faded, Barry knew that unprotected archery was the most obvious cause and...</p><p>And he didn't want Oliver to go to jail.  But he couldn't stay on this case.</p><p>"I was in a lot of the same classes as him in high school, remember?"  Barry saw Lance's expression grow surprised, but then Barry hadn't spent much time with Laurel in school.  "Tutored him in physics for extra spending money."</p><p>"You got that fancy chemistry set and nearly blew up the kitchen," Joe responded dryly.</p><p>Barry could feel his ears burning from the force of his embarrassed flush.  "The point is, he remembered me when we ran into each other after he got back from the island.  And he needed a friend who wouldn't expect him to be the same person he used to be.  Turns out I'm that friend.  I haven't done anything wrong, Joe."  Except for lying about the origins of the bullet riddled laptop, though maybe it wasn't a lie after all...  "And I'm confident Oliver hasn't either," which was rapidly edging into blatant lies territory.  "But it's a conflict of interest for me to stay on this case.  And it could hurt the prosecution to keep me on it, especially if Laurel really does agree to defend him."</p><p>There's a mixture of frustration and pride on Quentin's face at Barry's implication that Laurel was a particularly competent lawyer.  The detective sighed.  "Yeah, she would, wouldn't she?  I'll go talk to the captain and get one of the offsite CSIs put on the case."</p><p>"Thank you, Detective."  Barry turned to Joe as Quentin walked off.  "What?"</p><p>"Queen?  Really?"</p><p>"It's not like my being his friend is a secret," Barry grumbled crossing his arms.  "You knew I was spending time with him Joe.  I literally told you about it several times."</p><p>Joe grimaced.  "Yes, well, I didn't realize it was this serious."</p><p>Barry furrowed his brow and tilted his head to the side because... "What is that supposed to mean?"</p><p>"I mean... I didn't realize you had such a crush on him."</p><p>"What?!"  Barry's voice went up an octave and he winced.  "I don't... that's ridiculous.  Don't be ridiculous, Joe."</p><p>"Be careful with that heart of yours, Bar," Joe told him, ignoring the protestations of innocence entirely.  "If he is the vigilante, I don't want you getting hurt."</p>
<hr/><p>Oliver comes out of the polygraph pale and shaky.  Barry leads him off to the side and envelops him in a hug.</p><p>The soft puffs of breath on Barry's neck as Oliver burrows into the embrace for a few moments are... lovely.  Barry's going to be distracted by the phantom sensation of it all day, he can tell.</p><p>"You okay?" Barry asked as Oliver pulled away. </p><p>"Yeah, just... some of the questions were about the island."  Oliver shrugged, "about Sara."</p><p>Barry doesn't think he's heard Oliver say anything about Sara since they started hanging out.  Though her presence hangs over any conversation even tangentially about Laurel.</p><p>Quentin, Barry decides, is an ass.  It's understandable, though, because he's a grieving father.  But that doesn't make him less of an ass.  (Barry also recognizes he's being biased, but he doesn't care.)</p><p>"I figured they'd ask about, like, Iron Heights or something," Barry said with a frown.</p><p>"They did, asked if I'd ever been there."</p><p>"Eleventh grade field trip," Barry said immediately.  "I tried to sneak off to see my dad."</p><p>Oliver stared at him blankly.  "Was I sick that day or..."</p><p>"No you were there," Barry assured him.</p><p>"Oh, shit," Oliver hid his face behind his hands.  "Oh, shit, I think I just lied on my polygraph," he hissed softly enough for Barry's ears only.</p><p>"Don't tell me that," Barry hissed back, equally quiet, but laughing in amusement.  "This is why polygraphs aren't admissible in court.  If you don't think you're lying, then you don't react as if you're lying and the results are clean.  And if someone has bad anxiety then there can be false positives where someone is speaking the truth as they know it, but it registers as a lie anyway."</p><p>"I really don't remember that field trip," Oliver groaned, shaking his head.  "Maybe I skipped school that day.  I was doing that a lot that year.  Nearly got held back because of it.  Mom was pissed."</p><p>"I'm pretty sure you were there," Barry retorted.  "Don't worry about it, okay?  Just go home and get some sleep.  The next time the vigilante does something, you'll be in the clear.  And it won't matter if you were there or not."</p><p>In the clear with the police, maybe.  Barry's pretty sure that if the 'vigilante' does something while Oliver's under house arrest, it'll just mean Oliver's got a partner.  And it might hurt a little, to know Oliver trusted someone else with his secret and not him.  But he doesn't want to examine that hurt too closely right now.</p>
<hr/><p>While Oliver jokes about having a prison themed party during his house arrest, he actually stays quiet for his family's peace of mind.  But it means that Barry finds himself invited over to the Queen family mansion for dinner that evening.  </p><p>Moira Queen is just intimidating now as she was when Barry was in high school and tutoring Oliver in here after school.  She remembers Barry, though, and is convincingly delighted that Oliver's reconnecting with old friends.  So Barry assumes he's genuinely welcome in her home.  Thea seems to catch on awfully quick that Barry's got a crush, which is mortifying.  She, of course, is absolutely delighted and starts dropping hints.  Thankfully Oliver's oblivious and just seems to find his sister irritating.</p><p>Walter is the only member of Oliver's family who isn't terrifying in their own way.  Barry likes Walter - his presence is soothing.</p><p>Laurel showed up as they were finishing up dinner and got into a quiet argument with Oliver over something.  Barry suspects its the Iron Heights thing - she was on that field trip too, after all.  It's as Laurel's leaving that things go... wrong.  As Oliver's seeing Laurel out, someone from the outside attacks their way in.  A gun goes off and Barry's focus narrows down to Oliver.</p><p>He runs into the nearby study and grabs a poker for the fireplace, returns to the front hall, and swings at the attacker's legs.  There's a distinct crack as the iron poker collides with the other man's knee.  The assailant goes down with a scream of pain right as the door opens again, this time admitting Detective Lance, gun drawn.</p><p>Afterwards, the attacker is taken away by an ambulance.  Once the ambulance pulls away, Quentin removes Oliver's tracking device because the vigilante attacked somewhere else that night while Oliver was with his family and Barry and Laurel too - Quentin is clearly not pleased about that last one - and Barry's apparently the hero of the hour to the Queen family for coming to Oliver's rescue.  Not that Barry's necessarily sure Oliver needed rescuing, but...</p><p>Moira is a lot less scary when she's effusively thanking him for saving Oliver.  So Barry's just going to roll with it.</p><p>"My hero," Oliver drawls, a hint of... something in his eyes that makes Barry's own eyes go dark with want.</p><p>"Happy to help," Barry replied, licking his lips and wondering if he could get away with kissing Oliver.  "So what brought Laurel here?"</p><p>"She wanted to let me know I lied about never being to Iron Heights.  I still don't remember that damn field trip," Oliver griped, leading Barry upstairs to his bedroom for privacy away from Thea's prying ears.</p><p>Barry wonders what Oliver's bed feels like and then mentally slaps himself in the face.  Stop that.</p><p>"Tsk, tsk, Oliver Queen, lying to the authorities," Barry drawled mockingly.  He waits for the door to shut before flopping onto the bed anyway.  It felt comfy.  "That was Dig out there tonight, wasn't it?"</p><p>Oliver went very quiet.  </p><p>"You don't have to answer that.  But I hope you trust me when I say, I'm not going to go looking for evidence or trying to get you arrested.  I got myself taken off that case already for the conflict of interest that you being the lead suspect presented and I really, really don't want you going to jail, so just..."  Barry trailed off as Oliver sat down beside him.</p><p>"I'm sorry," Oliver said quietly.  "I shouldn't have taken the laptop to you.  I put you in an awful position and it could cost you your job if... if anyone can prove I'm the Hood."</p><p>Barry sat up and took Oliver's hand.  "How did you use the information I took off that computer?"</p><p>"I stopped Lawton from killing Walter and Warren Patel's other competitors," Oliver admitted.  "Being involved with me could cause you a lot of trouble, Barry.  You should... you should stay away from me.  It'd be safer for you."</p><p>"Pretty sure that's my choice to make," Barry pointed out.  "I'm not going anywhere."</p><p>Oliver sighed softly.  "I never expected you to be this easy to fall for," he muttered, before leaning in to kiss Barry.</p><p>And, well, just try to get rid of him now.  Never happening.</p><p>Barry kissed back.</p>
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